Lolita

[Carmuka]

What do you think about Nabokov’s Lolita as a precursor to the postmodernist novel?
And another quesation... at the end of the story, do you think that it would have been better for Lolita to have gone with Humbert Humbert instead of saying "no" to him?

[Jeremiah Jazzz]

Miss Haze most definitely choose the right decision not going with Humbert anywhere at the end of the novel. With this rejection, the reflection propounded onto the read is simply tragic, which I believe is what Nabokov intended as the novel is the tragic suppression of beauty, well, at least this is my plausible interpretation.
As for the postmodern novel, I'd say Nabokov's Pale Fire is more postmodern than Lolita. In Pale Fire there is mass uncertainty (whether it be the supernatural aspect or the mere formation of the book: prologue, poem, annotation (story within annotations)), which is the cliche for postmodernism, mass interpretations with little certain. In Lolita, Nabokov sets up H.Humbert for tragedy from the start with rejection. My two cents....

[kelby_lake]

I don't think she should have gone with him because that would have been a bit creepy. It also makes the story more tragic and faces HH with what he has done to her.

[PoeticPassions]

The ultimate rejection is the ultimate liberation. Lolita frees herself from Humbert, for she finally is able to make a decision. She is old enough to say no, to realize what had transpired between them... to be conscious of sexuality and of love.

Does Humbert really realize that what he did was wrong? I think so. Does he regret it? That's debatable.

What we do know, I think, is that in the end he truly loved Lolita. The tragedy is not that she rejects him in the end, rather it is the acknowledgment of transience. Youth is fleeting; beauty if fleeting; and love is fleeting... nothing stays the same. And sooner or later, we all have to let go...

[kelby_lake]

'And I knew that the hopelessly poignant thing was not Lolita's absence from my side, but the absence of her voice from that chorus'

[Veva]

I have to agree that it would be weird and not tragic at all if they stayed together, but I do not approve of the idea that she freed herself from HH, I think he is the victim after all and she continued hurting him till the end...

[kelby_lake]

I think she freed him from her by not going with him.

[Veva]

I think she freed him from her by not going with him.

very true